Americans United in Civic Ignorance, Politicians Worse

Every once in a while a report comes out about how ignorant Americans are in civics, politics, American history and economics. This one seems to indicate that American ignorance cuts across all demographics:

“Young Americans failed, but so did the elderly,” said Bunting. “Men and women, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, Republican and Democratic, white, black, yellow and brown—all were united in their inability to master the basic features of America’s constitutional form of government.”

But this surprised even me:

Seventy-nine (79) percent of elected officeholders did not know that the Bill of Rights expressly forbids the government establishment of an official religion.

It’s a good thing we have a democratic system, where ignorant voters can vote for even more ignorant officials.

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